The Plateau State Government has sponsored 229 persons to perform this year’s Hajj.
This came two years after Governor Simon Lalong announced that he had suspended sponsorship of pilgrims due to paucity of funds.
The state government only sponsored the pilgrim officials last year, but Lalong during a farewell ceremony for Plateau State pilgrims noted that out of the 1,118 pilgrims for this year, 502 persons had been sponsored privately while the state had sponsored 229 and the remaining 387 were those who were deferred by the immediate past government.
Lalong who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Prof. Sonni Tyoden, said the payment for the 387 persons deferred had increased the cost of sponsorship and limited the number of those “who by official recognition of their spiritual responsibilities would have been sponsored by government”.
“This is a sacrifice that we all must share in our bid to ensure that those who were denied the opportunity are able to perform the pilgrimage as one of the religious pillars of Islam,” he said.
Lalong charged the pilgrims to see themselves as ambassadors of the state whose spiritual depth of conviction must be reflected in the pious conduct of the exercise.
He noted that the temporary suspension of sponsorship was only an adjustment to the current realities and did not in any way reflect the government’s lack of appreciation of the relevance of holy pilgrimages to the citizens of the state.
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